Evaluating the Minimalistic View of Women from Mulla Sadra's Perspective

Today, the issue of women and their ontological position is one of the topics discussed in the field of thought and social sciences. Although this newly emerging issue is not unprecedented in the ideas expressed by the thinkers of the past few centuries, including Mulla Sadra, there are few concise statements by some thinkers on which one can rely to understand the "human value of women" from their perspective. In Mulla Sadra's philosophy, in addition to some statements (fourteen statements) made about women, his philosophical foundations can also be helpful in inferring his view of women status. The present study, through the use of a descriptive-analytical method, tries to answer the question whether Mulla Sadra has a minimalistic view of the human position of women. To answer this question, relying on a text-based and a principle-based approach, we conclude that Mulla Sadra’s statements attributing intellectual defect to women neither have the meaning that the society infers from this concept, nor is this meaning attributable specifically to women. To Mulla Sadra, the concept is a level of human being attributable to both males and females. His philosophical foundations manifest the absolute rejection of gender-based nature of the self which can be proof of the equality of human identity among men and women. The paper also refers to several alternative positions taken toward gender-based self and their answers to this question.